Kevin Pietersen will be missing when England embark on their tour of India but new Test captain
Alastair Cook says the maverick batsman will start with a clean slate once he joins up with the squad following a summer of turmoil.

Alastair Cook insists Kevin Pietersen will start with a clean slate when he joins up with the England Test squad (Picture: PA)

Cook and his squad fly to Dubai for a four-day training camp before heading to India on Monday.

Pietersen, though, is not available straight away. His commitments in the Champions League for Delhi Daredevils, who face a semi-final tomorrow in South Africa, means he is the only member of the touring party not on the flight from Heathrow. If Delhi make the final of the Twenty20 tournament on Sunday, the 32-year-old will miss the entire training camp.

Cook, though, denies any special treatment has been given to the batsman.

‘No, I don’t think so,’ he said. ‘If Yorkshire had made the semi-finals Joe Root would have been there as well. That was an issue for the boards. When Kevin comes back he comes back in with a clean slate. Clearly it’s been a difficult two months for us as an England side but for me as a captain, the best possible outcome has happened.

‘We’ve got a world-class player back. Kevin seems very contrite and he’s desperate to be back playing and scoring runs for England. The team are very confident that it can all work well.’

On the wider challenge of four Tests in India, where England have not won since their 1984/85 series, Andrew Strauss’ successor added: ‘Leading England for the first time as Test captain is a huge honour.

‘We have a real tough challenge ahead but I’m very confident we can go out there and do something special.’